Written by Jed Geary Director of College Counseling at Eagle Hill School

There are three universal tips for college success that are not limited to students with learning disabilities and that I would give all 18 year-olds heading off to college and possibly leaving home for the first time.

Searching for the right school for your child can be a daunting task, and many families smartly hire an educational consultant to help guide them through the process. There are educational consultants to work with students with all types of needs, from those who are looking for the appropriate college to others who are in need of a therapeutic placement. Looking for a school to work with a student with a learning difference is all part of an educational consultant’s job. With that in mind, I thought it would be helpful to provide questions that parents might ask their educational consultant prior to searching for schools.

What is an executive functioning disorder? We hear and use this term a lot in the learning (dis)abled community, but because it’s such a broad topic, there is often confusion about what executive functioning disorders are and what the issues look like. This article will provide both an overview of the problems many students face, and some tips that can help make living with these challenges easier.

Written by Jason Przypek History Dept. Chair at Eagle Hill School and Former Editor of Learning Diversity.

The International Baccalaureate is a nonprofit educational foundation offering prestigious, internationally-minded educational programs. Its Diploma Programme is recognized and respected by leading universities around the world.

Classroom anxiety is real. Sometimes it’s a result of a learning disability, sometimes it is the impediment to learning itself – no matter the case, it is a major issue for many students in today’s classrooms.

This is a very difficult time in education in many nations. Neoliberal and conservative policies have had major effects on schools, on communities, on students, on administrators, on teachers, and on all school staff. As I point out in a number of recent books, under the influence of those with increasing power in education and in all too much of society what is public is supposedly bad and what is private is supposedly good. Budget cuts have been pushed forward; jobs have been cut; attacks on educators at all levels and on their autonomy and their organisations and unions gain more visibility; corporate models of competition, accountability, and measurement have been imposed; continual insecurity has become the norm. The loss of respect for the professionalism and collective rights of educators is striking, as is the immense disrespect for poor and working class communities and for the knowledge and wisdom that “ordinary people” have. These are truly international tendencies, ones found in an entire range of countries (Apple, 2006; 2010; 2013a; See also Ball, 2012). And, very unfortunately, these regressive attitudes and policies are often supported by governments that are sometimes even historically affiliated with more progressive policies.

High school can be overwhelming. There are new and challenging classes, more extracurricular commitments, lots of social obligations, and of course loads of homework. For new high school students, and even those well on their way to graduation, keeping track of everything can be tough.

Near a frontier village, there lived a father and a son. One of the father’s horses accidentally went missing, and all the villagers consoled him. He replied, “I am not sure but that this could be a good thing.” After several months, the horse came back, along with the finest horse he had ever seen; all the villagers congratulated him. The father said, “Well, this could actually be bad for me.” Of his father’s many horses, the son liked riding the beautiful horse which came to them best. But he fell off this horse, and broke his leg. When the villagers consoled him, the father said, “This looks very bad, but I think it could be a fortunate event.” One year later, barbarians invaded the frontier, and all able-bodied men took up arms and went to war. Of the men from this frontier village, nine out of ten were killed. Owing to his broken leg, the son did not have to go to war, and survived.

A lot of parents of first time boarders find themselves asking, “how do I help my child make friends at boarding school?” This is a more common concern than many think. Going away for school can be scary. There are many unknowns: Who will I be friends with? How will I cope with all the work? Where am I going to sit at lunch?

What is Learning Diversity about?

Learning Diversity is a blog hosted by Eagle Hill School where educators, students, and other members of the LD community regularly contribute posts and critical essays about learning and living in spaces that privilege the inevitability of human diversity.

The contributors of Learning Diversity come together to engage our readers from a variety of disciplines, including the humanities, social sciences, biological sciences and mathematics, athletics, and residential life. Embracing learning diversity means understanding and respecting our students as whole persons.